Gavin’s warm green eyes narrowed into an angry glare and without a word, he turned around and stalked away from the doorway.
“Crap.” I flung the covers off of myself so that I could get up.
“Ah! Blood related!” Zander’s hands flew to his eyes so that he could cover them and avoid seeing is non-existent naked sister.
“I’m dressed, you idiot!” I yelled. “Now will you two get the hell out of here?” I picked up a pillow and chucked it toward him. For a girl who never misses with a gun, the pillow totally went off course and nailed Christina hard in the face.
“Dang, Chloe, defensive much?” She picked up the pillow from where it fell on the ground and flung it back at me.
Zander had a grin spread across his face. “Look Drew, pillow fight. It’s a man’s dream come true.”
“Go away,” Drew told him in a sleepy voice.
“Fine, we’re going,” Zander told him. “We just wanted to let you guys know that we are eating in about ten minutes and then we are heading out. We were headed to your room next.”
“We’ll be there.” I marched over to the door and closed it in their faces.
Once Drew and I were alone again he pushed the covers back and finally got out of bed. “Sometimes living with so many people is a real pain in the ass.”
I nodded in agreement. “You better go get ready, apparently we’re running late.”
He grabbed his gun off the night stand. “Someday we will get to lay in bed together and not have to worry about all of this.”
“I know,” I whispered as he opened the door and stepped out into the hall. “See you down there.”
He shut the door behind him and I turned toward the bed, pulling up the covers and making it up like it was before I’d gotten into it. His comment about someday not having to worry about stuff like this had me wondering if he was thinking about the same things as I had been earlier.
Oh well, it wasn’t like we could worry about that kind of stuff right now anyway. First things first ... we had to stop this damn apocalypse.
Since I didn’t have time for yet another shower, I hurried with my clothes and weapons, and then headed down to the kitchen. I could skip the shower, but not the food.
Anthony had made a nice spread of bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, toast and fresh fruit. There was no way we could say that Anthony wasn’t being a perfect host, eating at his place was like eating at a restaurant every day.
I entered the kitchen and received a wink from Christina. Zander looked like he wanted to laugh at me. Gavin set his angry glare on me and kept it there, no matter where I moved in the room.
Talk about uncomfortable. None of them were doing this to Drew, why were they picking on me?
Drew leaned over in his seat and whispered, “Because you’re an easy target.”
I furrowed my brow. “How did you know I was thinking that?” I whispered.
“I know you.” He shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth. “Ignore them, act like it doesn’t bother you and they will lose interest.”
I glanced at Gavin. “Not everyone.”
Drew shrugged like he didn’t care. I was pretty sure he really didn’t, though. Those two had been going at it practically since birth and I didn’t foresee that ending anytime soon. I, on the other hand, did care. I cared a lot. I didn’t want Gavin to be unhappy. I just wished that he would find someone for himself that he liked as much as he liked me.
Our connection was a strange one. I can’t even describe the way I feel when it comes to Gavin. I love him, but not love, love. With Gavin, it just feels like we know each other inside and out. I wanted him in my life, but at the same time it’s weird when he does things like glare at me because of my relationship with Drew.
Lately we had this unspoken agreement going on where he just deals with it and I try not to flaunt it around in front of him. I guess that agreement was no longer active.
Ugh. Oh well. No more feeling sorry for myself, it was time to go walk the streets of New Orleans and kill us some vampires.
~~~***~~~
We met Sarah outside the mansion on Royal Street. She had about ten people with her, both males and females, who were all dressed in black clothing or dark camouflage. I had to agree, these were the best kinds of clothes. My own outfit consisted of black cargo pants, black long sleeved tee, even though it was freaking hotter than Hades outside, and my black combat boots.
Cliché, I realize, but I know I looked super cute and if Christina ever taught me anything it is that you can be a good fighter, but if you look good while you’re doing it, that makes it epic.
Really though, I just wanted to look good for Drew, I didn’t care about any of that other stuff. I was excited to get out there and whomp on some vampires too. I had a lot of frustration I needed to get out.
Both groups silently merged and we began to search the streets.
Together we had a lot of people, so I wasn’t really afraid of anything happening to any of us, I think the sheer number of our group gave me, and everyone else, a false sense of security. It had only been about ten minutes into our search when we were ambushed by soldiers pledged to the Vampire Council.
I crept along the cracked and broken sidewalks quietly, keeping my ears open for any sign of danger. I was near the rear of the pack and it wasn’t easy listening for other footsteps with nearly twenty people creeping along beside me.
We passed an alley and after a quick inspection of it, we moved on. We had been sticking to the sidewalks, close to the walls where we were underneath the galleries and safe from overhead attacks. But, even those precautionary measures didn’t stop the attack.
Behind me lingered two of Sarah’s men. One guy’s name was Travis and I couldn’t remember the name of the other one. After we passed the alley a gunshot sounded from behind me, followed by an ear piercing scream. I spun, guns up and at the ready, just in time to see the guys whose name I couldn’t remember, pushed back by the impact of the bullet.
Instead of running to his friend, Travis headed for the alley, where the shot had come from. I followed Travis, passing him just as we hit the opening. Two soldiers were bolting for the other end of the alley.
Nice, their plan was to pick us off one by one. Awesome.
I picked up speed, determined to catch them before they got too far away. I heard the sound of more boots hitting the pavement behind me and I knew a few of the others had followed. It didn’t take long for me to catch them. I was not quite vampire fast, but faster than a full blooded human.
I rammed into one of the soldiers backs at full force. His gun flew out of his grip and his knees went out from underneath him, taking us both down to the ground. Mid-fall, I swung the gun in my left hand up and over. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work, but I managed to nail the other guy in the back of the neck.
By the time we hit the ground, someone had already shot the soldier I’d hit with my gun. The one beneath me grabbed hold of my arm and rolled me over until he was on top of me. The rough pavement scraped against my skin and I dropped the gun in my right hand.
The soldier grunted as he easily pinned me beneath him. One of his hands pushed down into my left bicep and the other slid up to the base of my throat and squeezed.
I looked into the man’s eyes as he choked me and saw that he was enjoying it. Below his eye, his dragon tattoo stretched as a smile spread across his face. This just pissed me off even more.
I wasn’t scared. That’s the thing with knowing you have your own back up. I let the heat swirl inside of me and then pushed it outward. I couldn’t wait to see this jerk off go up in flames. If it wasn’t me who he killed, it would have been someone else that he got his murderous jollies from. This wasn’t a guy who was forced into what he was doing, he did it because he wanted to.
Whoosh.
Not just my hand, but my whole body erupted. The soldier screamed, practically flying backward as he tried to get away from me. He stumbled on a chunk of raised ce
ment, landing on his back.
Whoever was behind me in the alley now had a clear shot and took it. The bullet hit him in the head and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, a splatter of blood following him down.
I closed my eyes and extinguished myself.
“What in the hell was that?” Travis stood about six feet away, mouth open and eyes wide with shock.
Drew, Gavin and Christina stood beside him and the others from the group were lingering at the opening of the alley.
I turned away, leaving him to stare at me with his mouth hanging open, and snatched my gun up from the alley floor. “I can light myself on fire,” I told him. “Thanks for that.” I indicated the dead soldiers and then dusted off my jeans. “Let’s move, these can’t be the only ones waiting for us.”
Travis shut his mouth, but followed along after me. He probably didn’t even know how to start that conversation and I didn’t offer any more explanation for him.
Within two hours, we had three more incidents involving soldiers and two fights with vampires. Luckily, we didn’t lose anyone else.
Sarah had decided to leave the guy who died earlier where he was. She was going to come back later in the daytime with a crew and then give him a burial. “We are going to take him out to the swamp. It’s where he’s from and where he would like to be laid to rest,” she explained. “I feel bad leaving him, but we can’t stop a mission every time we lose someone.”
I understood that. This was war and casualties were a part of war. At least she was going to come back and get him. I admired her for wanting to give him what he wanted in death, while trying to give life to the rest of the world.
Before I knew it, we were hunched over across the street from the Le Pavillon Hotel. The Vampire Council had set up shop in the historical building which sat on the outskirts of the French Quarter.
The hotel was well lit and had plenty of traffic. Vampires, soldiers and the pledged could all be seen entering and exiting the building.
I sat crouched against the shadows, holding both my guns, ready to fire if I had to, when suddenly a shiny black limousine pulled up to the front entrance. I turned to Drew who was directly to my right and made a face that clearly said “what the heck?’
He shrugged that he didn’t know and faced the hotel again to see who in the world would be arriving at the Vampire Council headquarters in a freaking limo.
The driver slid out from behind the wheel. When he turned toward us, I saw his dragon tattoo clearly illuminated in the light of the gas torches. He rounded the car to the side facing the hotel and leaned down to open the door. He rose, grasping the delicate hand of a pale blonde woman, who was dressed in a pin-up style pencil dress.
I’d know that pasty skin and shimmering mane anywhere. Dahlia.
Her hair fell over her bare shoulder, the tendrils standing out against the black of her dress. The driver released her hand and she wiped it on her skirt as if he had a severe case of cooties and she didn’t want to catch it.
“This is either really lucky or just a big pain in our asses,” Drew whispered.
As if she had heard him, Dahlia’s back straightened and tilted her head to the side. We all crouched lower, waiting for her to spot us as she turned and scanned the general area we were hiding in.
After a moment, she shook her head as if she may have imagined something and carefully ascended the steps into the lobby of the hotel.
“Let’s go,” Luke whispered. “It’s too dangerous here right now.”
We followed along with Sarah and Anthony leading the way again. I didn’t pay attention to where we were going because I was too shocked to really care. Dude, Dahlia being here was a total game changer. Sure, I still wanted to find Korina, but killing Dahlia was really, really high on my to-do list.
Before I realized it, we had walked several blocks and were at a park that was situated along the river. The nasty brown Mississippi didn’t look quite so ugly at night. The moon provided a gentle glow that rested lightly upon the slowly moving waters.
We gathered close to the water and Anthony pointed at a docked river boat. It was the kind of vessel that I’d only seen in pictures and movies. The interior of the boat was lit up and I spotted a few slight movements from the inside.
“That river boat,” Anthony began, “belongs to Korina. It is one of her financial endeavors that she has acquired over the years.”
Luke squinted his eyes. “Financial endeavors?”
Anthony nodded. “We vampires also have need for currency, which means that we must have businesses and investments. Korina purchased this river boat for exactly those purposes. People were hired to run the business so that she did not need to do it. The manager does all the work and deposits the profits into an account for her every month.”
On closer inspection, I could see the words “Korina Korina” scrawled on the back. Yup, that was definitely her boat. “Do you think she’s there?” I wondered aloud.
“It is possible,” Anthony replied, also staring out over the waters. “Absolutely worth investigating.”
I adjusted my bow over my shoulder. “Well, let’s do it. We are running out of time.”
As a group we trekked down to the dock, creeping quietly over the wooden structure and hoping that none of the boards would creak beneath our feet.
Surprisingly, no one was guarding the river boat. I suppose that was the difference between Korina and the Vampire Council, she wasn’t worried about the humans, she was just living her life.
We had divided into teams of three as we boarded. I was with Drew and Luke. Anthony had been teamed with Gavin and Sarah. It was strange because I’d originally thought that we were going to have a problem between Anthony and Sarah, but they seemed to really be getting along good.
Drew, Luke and I rounded deck of the boat, glancing in the windows as we passed them. Near the other end of the vessel we finally found signs of life on the inside. I leaned up against one of the panels between the windows so that I could peek in.
Two vampires sat on a Victorian era couch, near a bar that ran the width of the interior. Both were men and each of them held a drink in their hand. They both had on slacks and white button up shirts. One of them had a blazer on over the shirt, but his tie was loose, like a business man who was relaxing after a hard day at the office.
I glanced up at Drew, who was looking in from the other side of the window. He pointed his gun toward the vampires and then held the forefinger of his free hand to his lips to signal that we proceed in silence.
We moved on, finding the entrance just around the corner. I closed my eyes, then opened them again and pushed open the swinging door as quietly as I possibly could.
Neither of the vampires noticed us enter, they were deep in conversation about which was better, the blood of human males or females.
Yeah, I wanted to vomit.
As luck would have it, when we entered, we came in behind them. As I carefully stepped toward them with Drew and Luke on either side of me, I tightened my grip on my gun. We made it to the back of the couch and that was when one of them finally sensed us.
“You smell that?” no jacket asked the other one.
The vamp with the jacket raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “Humans ... and they are very...”
Before he could get another word in, I cut off his sentence by jumping up over the back of the couch and wrapping my arm around his neck in a headlock. Drew’s action was synchronized with mine. The barrels of both our guns were pressed against each of their heads.
“These bullets have rounds of UV light in them,” I hissed. “If you make a move, I am going to pump you full of it. Got it?”
Each of the vampire’s sat unmoving, except to speak. “What is it that you want?” the one I held onto asked in a low voice.
Luke stepped in front of them, both his guns trained onto their hearts. “Is a woman named Korina on this boat?”
No jacket, whom Drew held down, bared his fangs and
let out a low growl. “Why would we tell you that?”
Luke nodded. “So she is, then.”
No jacket shook his head. “I didn’t say that.”
“No, but you also did not say that she wasn’t. You also could have denied knowing what I speak of at all. You chose your words wrong.”
No jacket threw the f-bomb around in a couple of creative ways and then struggled against Drew. Obviously, vampires are much stronger, so when the vamp reached up and grabbed Drew by the shirt and flipped him over the top of the couch, Drew fired. A loud crack echoed throughout the cabin and the bullet lodged into the vampire’s forehead. No jacket slumped back into the couch, bleeding from the hole in his head as the UV light started to eat his brains away.
Drew had landed on the delicate coffee table in front of the couch. His body fell into it with so much force that the table splintered and broke in half.
“You all right?” I asked him.
He groaned and picked himself up from the remains of the broken table. “Yeah, but that gun shot just told everyone on this boat we are in here.” He brushed at his jeans.
He was right, we didn’t have much time now and we were so close to Korina. I tightened my grip on my gun, pressing the barrel even harder into the side of the vampires head. “Tell us where she is, right now!”
He just spread his lips into a grin and rolled his eyes up toward Luke. “I will never tell you.”
Luke sighed and turned, he paced the length of the couch a couple of times before he turned back, raised his gun and pulled the trigger. His round hit the vampire in the knee cap.
“Son of a bit...”
“Where is she?” Luke yelled.”
“Up yours,” the vampire yelled back, and he was promptly rewarded for his good behavior by Luke shooting him in his foot.
“You’re insane!” the vampire screamed.
Luke raised his eyebrows and flashed the vamp his own grin. “Maybe, now you will tell me where she is.”
I was totally in shock. I had never, ever seen Luke act this way. He was a good Hunter, for sure, but I never thought I would see him basically torture someone. I couldn’t decide if I liked it or if it scared me.
The Arcadia Falls Chronicles: Omnibus (Books 1-6) Page 28